Several major earthquakes (Mw>7) have occurred in this gap since 1850 (Fig. 1); the largest until now was the Mw 7.7 Tocopilla earthquake in 2007, which broke the southern rim of this segment beneath and north of Mejillones Peninsula along a total length of 150 km. Only the downdip end of the locked zone slipped in this event, and the total slip in the rupture area was less than 2.6 m 6,7 leaving most of the past slip deficit of c. 8-9 m accumulated since 1877 3 approaches. First, we performed waveform modelling of local strong motion seismograms and teleseismic body waves to constrain the kinematic development of the rupture towards the final displacement in a joint inversion with continuous GPS data of static displacements (Fig. 1, 2a). Second, we use the backprojection technique applied to stations in North America to map the radiation of high frequency seismic waves (HFSR; 1-4 Hz) 9,10 . The latter technique is not sensitive to absolute slip amplitudes, but rather to changes in slip and rupture velocity.During the first 35-40s the rupture propagated downdip with increasing velocity, nearly reaching the coastline (Fig. 2a,b). Surprisingly, towards the end of the rupture, the area near the epicenter was reactivated. In spite of the relatively complicated kinematic history of the rupture the cumulative slip shows a simple 'bull's eye' pattern with a peak coseismic slip of (Fig. 3a). The Iquique main shock nucleated at the 4 northwestern border of a locked patch and ruptured towards its center (Fig. 2a, 3a). The downdip end of the main shock as well as for the large Mw 7.6 aftershock rupture mapped both by the HFSR and co-seismic slip agrees quite accurately with the downdip end interseismic coupling (Fig. 2a,c 3a). The accelerated downdip rupture propagation for both earthquakes closely followed the gradient towards higher locking. Therefore, the Iquique event and its largest aftershock appear to have broken the central, only partly locked segment of the Northern Chile Southern Peru seismic gap releasing part of the slip deficit accumulated here since 1877 (cf. Fig. 1).The seismicity before the Iquique earthquake also concentrates in this zone of intermediate locking at the fringe of the highly locked -high slip patch (Fig. 3a). Starting in July 2013, three foreshock clusters with increasingly larger peak magnitudes and cumulative seismic moment occurred here (Fig. 2c, 3a,c). The mainshock rupture started at the northern end of the foreshock zone, inside the region of intermediate locking (Fig. 2c, 3a). Interestingly, the second foreshock cluster (January 2014) is associated with a weak transient deformation, whereas the third cluster (March 2014) shows a very distinct transient signal. GPS displacement vectors calculated over the times spanning these foreshock clusters point towards the cluster epicentres (Extended Data Figure 4). Deformation for both transients is entirely explained by the cumulative coseismic displacement of the respective foreshock clusters (Fig. 3d inset, Extended Data Figure 4). The ar...

On 16 September 2015, the MW = 8.2 Illapel megathrust earthquake ruptured the Central Chilean margin. Combining inversions of displacement measurements and seismic waveforms with high frequency (HF) teleseismic backprojection, we derive a comprehensive description of the rupture, which also predicts deep ocean tsunami wave heights. We further determine moment tensors and obtain accurate depth estimates for the aftershock sequence. The earthquake nucleated near the coast but then propagated to the north and updip, attaining a peak slip of 5–6 m. In contrast, HF seismic radiation is mostly emitted downdip of the region of intense slip and arrests earlier than the long period rupture, indicating smooth slip along the shallow plate interface in the final phase. A superficially similar earthquake in 1943 with a similar aftershock zone had a much shorter source time function, which matches the duration of HF seismic radiation in the recent event, indicating that the 1943 event lacked the shallow slip.

[1] We study the volcanic tremor time series recorded by a broadband three-component seismic network installed at Stromboli volcano during 1997. By using decomposition methods in both frequency and time domains, we prove that Strombolian tremor can be described as a linear combination of nonlinear signals in time domain. These ''components'' are similar to those obtained for explosion quakes, with the only difference being the amplitude enhancement. We characterize each of these nonlinear signals both in terms of their wavefield properties as well as dynamic systems. Moreover, we take into account the complex processes of magma flow and turbulent degassing, looking at time and amplitude modulation of tremor on a suitable scale. The distribution of tremor amplitudes is Gaussian while the intertimes between the maxima in a suitable scale are described by a Poisson clustered process. Starting from these analyses, a first approximate model for volcanic tremor field can be deduced. The recorded signals, i.e., the elastic vibrations at a point, can be described by a nonlinear equation which gives limit cycles (different observed ''nonlinear modes''). This equation is governed by a time-dependent threshold which represents the variability of bubble flux. We take into account some inelasticity in the medium perturbing the elastic potential with a Gaussian function on a suitable scale. It acts as a radiance function modulating the frequency of the limit cycle. This proposed model is able to reproduce waveform, Fourier spectrum, and phase space dimension of one of the extracted nonlinear wave packets.

S U M M A R YWe have investigated the wavefield properties of the seismic signals generated by the explosions of Volcán de Colima (México). We have analysed these properties to understand the initial mechanism that triggered the explosive events. Our study is focused on the direct waves coming from the crater area. Thus, we have analysed a set of moderate volcanic explosions at Volcán de Colima that was recorded by a small aperture seismic array over two periods: October 2005 and April 2006. We can distinguish two types of explosions, Vulcanian and ash-free events. Both types of explosions share the same characteristics, that is a long-period signal (not related to any type of emission) before the arrival of high frequency phases, and a later high frequency signal directly related to ash or gas emission. We have applied the Zero Lag Cross Correlation technique to obtain backazimuth and apparent slowness of the incoming waves. We have also applied polarization analysis to the record of every detected volcanic explosion. By comparing the results of both of these analyses, we have been able to identify the dominant wave types that comprise the seismic wavefield and infer in time and space a possible primary source mechanism that would trigger the volcanic explosions. We have observed an apparent slowness variation of the first onset of the long-period (LP) signal with a possible upward migration of the source; the depth of the source has been identified at a range between 2.6 and 3.3 km below the crater, associated with the range of measured apparent velocities relative to the first onset of the LP signal.

S U M M A R YThe Maule earthquake (2010 February 27, M w 8.8, Chile) broke the subduction megathrust along a previously locked segment. Based on an international aftershock deployment, catalogues of precisely located aftershocks have become available. Using 23 well-located aftershocks, we calibrate the classic teleseismic backprojection procedure to map the highfrequency seismic radiation emitted during the earthquake. The calibration corrects traveltimes in a standard earth model both with a static term specific to each station, and a 'dynamic' term specific to each combination of grid point and station. The second term has been interpolated over the whole slipping area by kriging, and is about an order of magnitude smaller than the static term. This procedure ensures that the teleseismic images of rupture development are properly located with respect to aftershocks recorded with local networks and does not depend on accurate hypocentre location of the main shock.We track a bilateral rupture propagation lasting ∼160 s, with its dominant branch rupturing northeastwards at about 3 km s −1 . The area of maximum energy emission is offset from the maximum coseismic slip but matches the zone where most plate interface aftershocks occur. Along dip, energy is preferentially released from two disconnected interface belts, and a distinct jump from the shallower belt to the deeper one is visible after about 20 s from the onset. However, both belts keep on being active until the end of the rupture. These belts approximately match the position of the interface aftershocks, which are split into two clusters of events at different depths, thus suggesting the existence of a repeated transition from stick-slip to creeping frictional regime.